Earth Week Tip #1: Tap Water

Refreshing!

Going out to eat? Drinking still water? Unless you are getting fancy mineral water, or sparking water, or something really specific, just get tap. Odds are, the bottles of cheapy water usually served are municipal water anyway.

Plastic bottles have a heavy toll on the environment. According to treehugger, 1.5 million barrels of oil are consumed each year in the US just for the production of these bottles. That's a years worth of fuel for 100,000 cars. Since 90% of bottles are NOT recycled, the little bottles end up in land fills where it takes up space as they hardly decompose at any sort of sustainable rate.

If you are unsure about tap water in your area, go to EPA.gov to find out about municipal water quality.

If the average US citizen consumes 22 gallons worth of bottled water a year, think how many bottles you'll save just by going tap! Think about how much money you'll save, too!

Bottles of water are about 16.9 ounces. At 22 gallons per year on average, that's 167 bottles per person a year. On the low end (i.e. Assuming you only buy cheap bottled water with occasional splurges at bars and restaurants), if the average bottle cost is about $1.50, you're spending $250.50 a year.

So, tip #1: easy, not a drastic lifestyle change, and cheap!

Stay tuned for more tips!
Keep Rockin', Love, Mimi

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Waste Water Electricity?

River water and salty ocean water used to generate electricity

Great article. Researcher at Stanford University found a way of converting water (and not even clean water) into electricity. The ScienceDaily article at the link above does a great job of summarizing the research.

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Oil Spill

I have been watching this story with a lot of interest for a while now and I have not a whole lot to say. I wanted to talk statistics and science and about what this means for wildlife in the Gulf, but I keep going back to politics and echoes of "Drill, baby, drill" run through my head. I can't bring myself to write about this travesty that is occurring because I think too many people, too many organizations, have tried so hard for and against this. So many people have risked their lives working on the rigs and protesting them. Who am I to say anything? I know biologically what this will mean to fisheries, wetlands, and bird nesting; but after I speak of all of those things, then what?

I guess, the only thing I really can say is that my thoughts go out to the people who lost family during the explosion. I will also be thinking of all the people that have livelihoods tied to wetlands and marine life and hope everything works out in the end. Not that my thoughts mean anything, they are just thoughts. Still.

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Monday Blues Eleven

Today's Monday Blues is a photo taken in St. Augustine. St. Augustine is one of my favorite cities, by the way. The history is fantastic and the architecture is superb. This blue sailboat was one of my favorites while I was there. It may not look blue, but it was navy I swear! It made me really reconsider my husband's offer of living on a boat. Sure this boat may not have been in the best of shape, but it's sweeping lines and rigging really gave me the illusion of what it once was... I am a sucker for fixer-uppers I suppose. I always want to take care of the neglected and prove to people that it was better than they thought.

Anyway, happy Monday and remember, you can participate in Monday Blues as well, just leave a link in the comments to your post with the theme.

Next week SeaLaura hosts, but top by this week to see her amazing pictures of Venice, CA.

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Water for the World

Fifteen students at the University of Iowa did something pretty amazing recently. When faced with a challenge in an engineering class, lack of clean drinking water for 1/6th of the population on earth, the students came up with something remarkable. What started as a class project, led them to create an EPA winning award and recognition at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago yesterday.

What was this amazing invention? A hand-held water sanitizer for a cost of about $5 a piece. The students won $75,000 in awards and are hoping to use this to reach even more people. The students are already working with resident in Xicotepec, Mexico and want to add Gahna to the list of places they want to impact. These water sanitizers will not only bring drinking water to people who normally don't have access to clean sources, but by doing so, can drasticaly increase the standard of living for many people and make their lives healthier one drop at a time.


Photo from Theilr's photostream on Flickr and used under Creative Commons.

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